Mary DavieThe current budget environment, along with White House initiatives like the 25-Point Plan to Reform Federal IT and the cloud first strategy, have created a favorable climate for adopting mission-enhancing technologies, said General Services Administration Assistant Commissioner for Integrated Technology Services Mary Davie.
With that said, Davie adds that implementation of these technologies as resources are locked in legacy systems and agencies frequently duplicate efforts to meet similar requirements.
“In order to move government forward, agencies must find ways to shift their resources from legacy systems to emerging technologies, and deal with security and the consumerization of IT, while eliminating duplication by transitioning to government-wide shared services,” Davie said in a new blog post. “The move to shared services will reduce costs by eliminating redundancy and leveraging the buying power of the federal government.”
Davie discussed the government’s efforts to define the future of government IT in her post, discussing a roundtable held last week in Washington, D.C., featuring federal chief information officers, chief technology officers and other community thought leaders.
“Owing to the growing disparity between shrinking budgets and the need for emerging technologies, agency CIOs are under increasing pressure to do more with less,” Davie said. “This presents a significant challenge and a unique opportunity for GSA to bring agencies together to identify major IT challenges, share industry best practices, and develop innovative acquisition solutions to move government IT forward.”
